Catholic Bloggers Demand a Purity Purge

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Every year at election time we hear the calls from Catholic religious leaders who make news for denying certain politicians communion for being unfaithful to the doctrines of the religion. Well, this time there is a new revolt, and it’s the Catholic leaders themselves being examined — by the most ardent “faithful” bloggers.

Pressure is on to change the Roman Catholic Church in America, but it’s not coming from the usual liberal suspects. A new breed of theological conservatives has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the church isn’t Catholic enough.

Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in the starkest language, these activists are naming names and unsettling the church.

— In the Archdiocese of Boston, parishioners are dissecting the work of a top adviser to the cardinal for any hint of Marxist influence.

— Bloggers are combing through campaign finance records to expose staff of Catholic agencies who donate to politicians who support abortion rights.

— RealCatholicTV.com, working from studios in suburban Detroit, is hunting for “traitorous” nuns, priests or bishops throughout the American church.

“We’re no more engaged in a witch hunt than a doctor excising a cancer is engaged in a witch hunt,” said Michael Voris of RealCatholicTV.com and St. Michael’s Media. “We’re just shining a spotlight on people who are Catholics who do not live the faith.”

…

The work of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is another frequent target.

Activists and bloggers, including Bellarmine Veritas Ministry of Texas, have been investigating the bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development, a national grantmaking program created in the 1970s to support community organizing and economic development.

The activists concluded that some of the grantees back same-sex marriage, artificial contraception or abortion rights. As part of the push, activists accused the director of the bishops’ national social justice office of serving on the board of a nonprofit while it advocated for gay marriage and abortion. The claims against him were shown to be unfounded.

It’s ironic to me that one of the targets of not being “Catholic enough” is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. This is the group that banded together to ensure that healthcare reform would die if any measure that even remotely looked like support for abortion was allowed in. Now, having successfully advocated for a watered-down reform that no one is pleased with and will be forced to undergo legal challenge after legal challenge, they have regrouped to attempt to remove any coverage for contraceptives from care, claiming that preventing pregnancy isn’t “preventative medicine” at all.

While deciding who is or isn’t sufficiently Catholic enough, these zealots are focusing on the very social issues that have been dividing the country, while completely ignoring the ideas of charity and compassion that originally was the basis of their faith.

Perhaps someone needs to remember to “remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”

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75 comments

The religion has to change to fit socially acceptable behavior which i highly doubt will be making it more strict. Churches need membership to survive, if you make the religion so strict that only the "pure" can be members, the church will dissolve.

2] The second thing most people don't know: is Rick Santorum's close connections with the extreme and cult-like Catholic group, Opus Dei. {Yes, like in the Da Vinci Code - which was based on true factual research into controversial Opus Dei.} The organization Opus Dei paid for a trip to Rome while Santorum was a Senator {as part of his "official duties"}; Senator Santorum was accompanied on this trip by an Opus Dei priest; and the occasion for the trip was the canonization {raising to Sainthood} of the founder of Opus Dei. Santorum even gave a speech at that event -- the transcript of Santorum's speech is public and available -- in which Santorum declared that his entire life and Political Agenda were inspired by Opus Dei's founder. Opus Dei, by the way, has had close ties with many Fascist dictators -- this can be researched -- and is one of the reasons it is so controversial.[And I guess Santorum is campaigning with the Catholic strict bloggers in mind - because that is what Opus Dei would be delighted in!]
A third thing to say here, is, that money people give to the Church DOES NOT GO TO CHARITY; but to the Church's Political Agenda, at this time an ENORMOUS amount going into fighting Marriage Equality for Gays. Money for Catholic Charities actually comes from money the U.S. Government GIVES to the Catholic Church for its "social programs". OUR taxpayers' money! Please, Catholics, stop giving ANY of your money to the Catholic Church. They are LYING about where it goes.

A couple of things most people don't realize:
1] ADOLF HITLER WAS A ROMAN CATHOLIC. Hitler was born to a Catholic family, was BAPTIZED a Catholic, and he NEVER renounced his Baptism; and the Roman Catholic Church NEVER excommunicated him. The Catholic Church inflates its actual numbers by counting ALL Baptized children as "Catholics"; so by the Catholic Church's own standards, Adolf Hitler was a CATHOLIC.
Adolf Hitler was NEVER an "atheist"; Hitler believed devoutly in God, as he states repeatedly in "Mein Kampf". Hitler believed he had a "Mission from God". That Mission was to exterminate the Jews. Hitler learned this Mission from the Catholic Church in Germany, which had been ferociously anti-Semitic for CENTURIES. {The Lutheran Church in Germany, with a very few modern exceptions, was also equally anti-Semitic.}
So, Adolf Hitler was a devout Believer in God, and a member of the Roman Catholic Church; NEVER in his life an atheist, as the religious people claim!

When you are standing in crap of your own making (sexually abusing children for how many centuries?) how DARE you presume to have any opinion on any other topic? The catholics have banded with the Mormons on abortion. That is really sick. Who really gives a damn what either group thinks?

I converted from mainstream Protestant to liberal Jew because I could not forgive Protestant insistence that I solemnly swear that I believed in God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Ghost. The main Roman Catholic issue seems to be a ban on birth control. That still sort of made sense up until the 1950's. Now we have been fruitful, we have multiplied, we have filled the earth. Now it is time to switch to a holding operation and let the earth's human population stabilize.

Not being Catholic enough? Nuns, priests, and bishops who are traitors? Let's get back to separation of church and state, get over the 'holier than thou' attitude, and elect officials who attempt to make decisions that empower us as human beings.

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Julie M. Rodriguez is an arts, green living, and political writer based in San Mateo, CA. Her work has appeared in xoJane, Care2 Causes, Greener Ideal, and Inhabitat. Follow her on Twitter @julierwrites. less